Grand Island High School: Viking Vision passes milestone

by jmaloni

Fri, Jan 28th 2011 04:30 pm

Mark Gorton of Grand Island High School, lower left, talks about the 100th taping of Viking Vision, the school's broadcast news channel. Gorton is surrounded by some of the approximately 50 students who help put the show on the air three times a week. (photo by Larry Austin)

Viking Vision, Grand Island
High School's version of Headline News, passed a milestone last week with the
airing of its 100th newscast in its first full school year of operation.

In typical Viking Vision
fashion, the 100th broadcast included news, weather, bloopers and a pie in the
face of an anchorman.

Viking Vision began right
after Martin Luther King Day last year in January 2010, said Mark Gorton, the
district's coordinator of instructional technology. Its shows air on the big
screen in the Viking Mall during the school day, as well as online at
schooltube.com.

Gorton and the students put
together three shows a week. The first Viking Vision newscast featured the
anchor team of Anthony Grande and Tori Fleming and about 25 other students,
Gorton said. This year, the roster of reporters has grown to more than 40.

"We had an inking there was
interest out there," Gorton said of the channel's birth last year. "Really, at
first, we had a lot of people talking about it and thought it would be a neat
idea, but to have it turn into this, I never would have expected."

"I've been very blessed to
have students who are enthusiastic about this, who like being on TV and are
interested in broadcasting, and they're good people too," Gorton said.

Students receive no credit
for taking part in Viking Vision, which is considered an after-school
extracurricular activity.

"They do everything from anchoring, great recorded pieces, to
recording Viking Values messages, and we have a couple people who work behind
the scenes and do audio and run camera," Gorton said. "So they're really
contributing in all different facets of media and production."

The 100th newscast also
includes video tributes from Viking Vision alumni who helped launch the group
last year.

Tom Gorman and Gorton
received a $5,000 Best Buy grant, with some funds used to purchase equipment.

"It hasn't been a burden of
cost at all for the district, which is great," Gorton said.

Student and staff reaction
to the program has been favorable in its first year. Rachel Ripellino
co-anchored a Viking Vision show that is one of the most watched episodes,
second only to a newscast that covered a certain GIHS physics teacher receiving
a wedgy from Buffalo Sabres alumnus Rob Ray during a charity basketball game.
Ripellino said she joined Viking Vision this year because "It sounded
interesting. And then when I went and did it my first time it was really fun,
and I just wanted to go back and do it again."

She said she's receive
plenty of feedback not only from her classmates, but from teachers as well.

"It depends on the teacher,
but the teachers mostly just like to see their students kind of being
professional-acting and a little funny at the same time," Ripellino said. "It
must be interesting to them."